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Should I signup with AvantLink.com Affiliate Network?? I have been approached by a merchant who is part of the AvantLink.com Affiliate Network. Since I have never used AvantLink.com or even know much about them I was wondering if they are a good company???

Thank you.........

MERCHANTS: Start showing your coupons directly on your site, that way your shoppers will stop leaving your site looking for them!! If not then remove your Coupon Box!!

I'd say yes, but that's because I think pretty highly of Gary. Aside from the fact that he's an all_right_guy (and actually answers email), he's available for individual assistance and has the most diverse set of useful tools available, especially for folks who use datafeeds.

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Been away, now I'm back. Not as much, but I'm back & starting from scratch. Where I was, was fantastic. Where I am now, less so. Things have changed, become harder. So have I. Game ON!!!================================================================

Does the network have the merchants with the products you wish to promote?

Yes they do, however I do not want to join any network and promote their merchants and find out later that they do not pay, etc....... So now before I join any new Network I want to do a little research before signing up...

MERCHANTS: Start showing your coupons directly on your site, that way your shoppers will stop leaving your site looking for them!! If not then remove your Coupon Box!!

Yes they do, however I do not want to join any network and promote their merchants and find out later that they do not pay, etc....... So now before I join any new Network I want to do a little research before signing up...

Well, at least you could be confident of the first rule of thumb

I am not with AvantLink.com Affiliate Network *yet* -- I may join at a future time.

Oh, they certainly do pay. I put up some AvantLink merchant links, forgot about them and was very surprised to find a $75 check in the mail one day. I've known Gary for years and he is solid, really supports his affiliates and is there to help you out when needed.

With any network there is a risk, even CJ and LS. It's part of the business. Spead yourself out amoungst various merchants and networks to protect yourself.

Should I signup with AvantLink.com Affiliate Network?? I have been approached by a merchant who is part of the AvantLink.com Affiliate Network. Since I have never used AvantLink.com or even know much about them I was wondering if they are a good company???

I just got started with AvantLink so I haven't received a commission check yet. I hope to be rolling out some cool new tools that are in development soon. I will say this about Gary - I've spent some time on the phone with him, as well as have had several Email exchanges. He's very responsive and seems like an overall good guy. As I understand it, he's been in the affiliate industry for some time before AvantLink. All indications are that this is a reputable company. They get where affiliate marketing is heading and focus on feeds, RSS and associated promotional tools. I've converted some sales on some of the very limited testing I've done. I expect my relationship with AvantLinlk to be very successul once these new tools are rolled out.

When I couldn't get a merchant datafeed to do anything - it crashed my FTP program each time I tried to upload it - Gary handed the problem over to his tech crew, and they somehow uploaded it from their end for me

Should I signup with AvantLink.com Affiliate Network?? I have been approached by a merchant who is part of the AvantLink.com Affiliate Network. Since I have never used AvantLink.com or even know much about them I was wondering if they are a good company???

Thank you.........

AvantLink is a good place to go for a nice selection of datafeeds, but there are quite a few other aspects of the business that I have found to be not too satisfactory. I have been signed up with the company for around 3 weeks and this is what I've found:

1. Response time on affiliate support issues are lagging, although I have only been receiving support from Paul Kalbach. The times in between responses via email can be 3-5 days in most cases. I have read alot of good things about Gary's support from AvantLink though on this forum, so I may try to see if I can get ahold of him for better support.

2. Their dynamic php based datafeed still has quite a few issues as far as customability for your sites design. I won't go too much into the technical details, but I would use the "raw data" option for feeds and then use a program like Webmerge to customize.

3. There is currently no option on their backend reports to track where a visitor came from when they make a purchase. This aspect is extremely important for marketing purposes and I will never signup with an affiliate network who doesn't have this in place or who cannot, at least, post my own 3rd party tracking script for my own tracking purposes. This has been an issue I've been trying to get resolved for awhile now with Paul, but no response as of yet. Again, maybe I'll try and see if Gary can help.

4. There is no contact # listed on their site for support either other than a simple contact form, although with a bit of searching I was able to retrieve Gary's phone number from this forum. Maybe I'll give that a try.

All-in-all, not a bad company for datafeeds and according to the posts here, their payments are on time, but my personal experience with support hasn't been too good, but we'll give gary and try and see how things go.

Since you used my good name, and implied something about the support capability of AvantLink through that means, I must respond to the service level issues.

<Response time on affiliate support issues are lagging>

You contacted support with a request for information 9/15/06 at 4:55 A.M. From that time until 9/26/06 at 5:40 P.M. there were eight (8) emails from you, which were all responded to by me. When the requests were during the working day, most were responded to in minutes, or at most a few hours because they required technical answers I did not have.

Most of your requests came late on Friday night, when I had personal business to take care of on the weekends, or was away, so I would respond on Monday, as soon as I got the answers.

During all of this time, you (1) had not even signed up as an affiliate to AvantLink, (2) had not responded to our specific requests for more information, (3) had never called me on the phone.

We at AvantLink Pride ourselves on the amount, quality, and timeliness or our support.

Fair enough Paul, but I believe you have a few facts wrong here within your statements above.

I dont know the exact amount of emails I sent you when first starting out, but there were nowhere near 8 emails sent to your address before I signed up with AvantLink.

You stated I haven't even signed up yet, but I have been signed up with AvantLink for a few weeks now, check your signup dates. I have been trying to get answers from you regarding the tracking for some time, but you never responded and I also sent you another email request on Thursday night of last week which has still not been responded to, until Scott Kalbach (your brother I take it) responded to early today.

Again...I have been signed up with the company for a few weeks now and have responded to all inquiries regarding information you all may have requested, which has been none to this date other than my website info and the information I had to fill out on the application.

And last, I did call you on the phone or at least tried to call pn Friday morning, but the auto-responder email that had your phone number in it, that was sent out once I signed up with AvantLink, is currently out of service. You might want to try updating that phone number. Its starts out with 561-451-XXXX.

I was never trying to downplay the service of AvantLink, only the experience I had with your replies. According to your defensive attitude and distorted facts, maybe I was right.

Haha, I know it is an old thread. I'm just trying to find a phone number to talk to someone at Avantlink. Can't find a single phone number anywhere, I'm just wondering what affiliates to when they really need to talk to someone. Emailing is not the best at times because then you have to wait to receive a reply. Is there any phone number to reach someone at Avantlink?